This past Saturday I finally made it down to Fifth Third Arena for my now yearly Cincinnati Bearcat basketball game. Last year I made it down to a game just before the end of the season, and this year was no different. In fact the game on Saturday was the last game of the regular season for the Cats, making it senior day.

There are four seniors on this year’s team. Point guard Cashmere Wright would likely be the highest rated of the bunch. Even with a career plagued by some lingering injuries, he broke the school record for steals in a career. A few points behind Cashmere in scoring for the season is JaQuon Parker, who will also be missed next season. Center Cheikh Mbodj was a late junior college transfer addition to the team. I don’t think he ever really developed into the player the coaching staff was hoping he would. Finally Alex Eppensteiner is the sole local product on the team. He is a walk-on player and saw his first start of his college career on Saturday.

The senior day game was against South Florida. It started off much like the rest of the Bearcats season, a very slow start with few points scored and yet somehow they were still in the game down the stretch. They were losing 28-23 at half and were down by eight with under six minutes left to play. Somehow they managed to come back and tie the game before the end of regulation. In overtime it was all UC and they went on to win 61-53. Even with the win many in the crowd didn’t feel positively about the teams chances in post season play.

The Bearcats take on Providence tomorrow afternoon in their first game of the Big East tournament. They lost to the Friars on the road about a month ago, 54-50. I’m hoping they get some revenge tomorrow, which would also help to get them into the NCAA tournament starting next week.